Theoretically yes – the little jaunts to the shop, or to return a DVD, wouldn’t happen. But like some others, I’d probably just break the law.

This

nb IIRC in New Zealand you get an on the spot fine. But as we don’t do on the spot fines, not sure how any law would be enforced.

showers at work

IMHO this implies hot sweaty sport and cyclist tear arsing about. We need more pootlers who ride city bikes and arrive at their destination not dripping in sweat and smelly.

and to get more pootlers out on bikes we need a pleasent cycling environment. ie infrastructure and attitudes (on all sides)

So banning lycra on any journey less than 5 miles might work 😉

“So I think when there’s laws passed for cyclists, then you’re protected and you can say, well, I’ve done everything to be safe.”

He added: “It’s dangerous and London is a busy city and a lot of traffic. I think we have to help ourselves sometimes.

While we can debate helmet law all day (and probably will – again) the key bit for me is I think we have to help ourselves sometimes.. ie do all you can to make ourselves safe and then push the responsibility onto the drivers. There are always too many people riding dangerously / without lights / with headphones etc etc etc that any safety arguments are undermined to a certain extent.

Ironically if helmets were law, Bradleys little victory lap would have been illegal

Alas these types of bikes are not generally made to be repairable, and indeed your average punter won’t bother to repair it. ergo there is no demand and as a consequence no supply.

option 1 : Ditch it and buy a new bike like yer average punter.
option 2 : Scrounge around the tip / free ads / ebay for a similar bike and swap the parts over
option 3 : Go to an LBS where they recycle / sell a lot of second hand stuff and see if they have anything.

Good luck

Time, cost, weather and family mean that my focus has changed to local events only. Due to the fact that there are no local MTB races, I’m now doing tris and swimming.

eg, The 3 closest tris to me are run from leisure centres all within a 10 mile radius. A sprint tri starts at 8am, which means I’m home again by lunchtime and the wife & kids are happy. Plus no wrecked & muddy bike to clean & fix and minimal fuel bills to get there.

That said the Big Bike bash is pencilled in as a family trip for 2013 as the little trbs want to go racing. (away for it this year booo)

Swimming – You won’t make up any time on a 400m pool swim, so just concentrate on doing it without knackering yourself. Get lessons. This site has some good tips http://www.swimsmooth.com/beginner.php and there are many many more to chose from. I swim and run in my cycling shorts (obviously not baggies)
Bike – go as fast as you can
Run – just limit your losses
Transition – practice this, work out what you are going to wear and what order your going to put it on and get used to running after riding. Talc in the socks if you wear them.

Something is attacking a courgette in a pot. Not eating leaves but eating through stalk near base. We ripped out the first one,put another in and netted it. Same thing happened.
There’s something in that dirt and its scarey

That’ll be little teeny tiny slugs, same thing is happening to my peppers and squashes. Carpet bomb that baby in slug pellets. Cover or net to keep birds and hedgehogs off. That or nuke it from orbit, it’s the only way to be sure

I haven’t read the rest of the thread but that sounds a lot like our first.
On a good day the missus would be waiting at the front window for me to get home from work, on a bad day she’d be waiting on the drive to hand him over! Luckily we didn’t have another child to worry about at that time.

The sad truth is that he had to grow out of it, he got a lot better when he could crawl and walk and general destroy the house under his own steam.

oh and very sadly I found that the Wurzels was the best music to jiggle him off to sleep to……. 5 years on and I can still remember the lyrics to the Blackbird song.

Salad crops seem to be OK, everything else is struggling. Too wet, too cold, too windy, too many hungry slugs, rabbits, pigeons and pheasants.

Not a single parsnip from 2 sowings, planted carrots for the 5th time yesterday as I seem to have about 5% germination on the others. squashes are looking pitiful, 1 lot of sweetcorn looks OK, 2nd didn’t germinate, 3rd lot planted again last week. Sweet potatoes are still alive but haven’t actually grown since I planted them out under glass 6 weeks ago, Broccoli had about 10% germination so not need to thin them, let alone transplant them somewhere with more space.

My new crop to try this year was an outdoor cucumber…. HA HA HA HA not a chance

Used to, but then I lost it, so now I don’t

I’d head to Go outdoors to see what they’ve got. But the Camping Gaz bottles are stupidly expensive. circa £50 for the deposit on the bottle + £20 to fill it.

Unless your investing for the longterm you might be better buying a couple of cheaper single ring stoves that use disposable bottles

The grills are generally only useful for cooking 1 piece of toast at a time,
I sometimes use just a normal table, they don’t get that hot underneath. bigger risk is the kids knocking them over, hence I’ve invested in a separate utility tent that I use as a kitchen.

Well, back in the day, the pros would hit 60mph+ down the Kamikaze.
So unless your mate is called “Son of Tomac” I’m dubious of his claim.

My bike computer once recorded a top speed of 98mph, but I never really believed it you know.

I keep a set of running kit at work for lunchtime and do evening runs once the kids are in bed and the missus is in the bath.

It helps that the missus also runs one or two evenings a week so there’s no hard stares

It doesn’t help that I hate running. But when time is limited it works.

Tell them they can never have another foreign holiday and the only weekends away they’ll have are at dog friendly campsite in the rain until the dog dies as it’s not fair and too expensive to keep putting the dog in kennels.

That’s what my wife keeps saying to me & the kids everytime we ask for a dog – it’s worked so far.

and a Bulldog would be very close to the bottom of my list of breeds to choose from.

41, 2 kids and I’m booked in to see the GP next week……..

I know it’s not supposed to be a pleasent and relaxing procedure, but reading this thread has brought me out in a cold sweat

Ahh, and here I am sitting at my desk about a mile away. I knew the trails were there but never knew the club existed!

Would love to join you but Mrs trb is out tonight so I have to look after the little trbs.

I may bring little trb down one friday in the summer hols though (if his mum will let him stay out late)

at the very least dragging the touring bike out the garage and just clearing off

Do this, you’ll do interesting things and have time to think. I did it – albiet on a tandem with the future mrs trb on the back and it was the best thing I’ve done (until we came home, got married and had kids of course 😉 )

Work is just the same now as it was before we left, but we considered staying staying in Auckland and decided it would the same shit with a different view and a long way to come home to see the family!

We went for eight months, but met people who had been pedalling for anything from 8 days to eight years!

All my bikes are HT,

Dialled PA – Main do it all MTB
One Inbred SS – local winter mud and sometimes with 1×9 + childseat
Planet X kaffenback – commuter, CX and lately tri
Tandem – touring and child carrying duties
Ragleigh rapid reactor! – £18 off ebay, riding to shops & swimming pool, left outside & always unlocked – it rocks!

OK, probably not the list you were expecting but they’re all HTs

£44 for a 10 hour day around here in a nursery. We pay for 51 weeks a year (we have to look after have our own children at Christmas *sigh*).
The obvious advantage being that when the staff take holiday, the nursery can cover it

My boy has one that with cars on that he likes to wear, It also fits properly. I can’t remember the brand, giro or bell I think.

We also have a rule – if he wears a helmet then so do I, and visa versa.

Nothing boils my wee more than
1) seeing parents riding sans helmet and kids with – it’s either a good idea or it’s not
2) Parents that absolutely insist their kids wear a helmet when they even touch a bike or scooter and then slap an ill fitting saucepan on their heads and don’t even do the strap up properly.

I got evil stares from some parents a while back when my boy borrowed a go on a bike and I told him not to bother with a helmet as the only one available was too small and he’d be better off without. Their kids were happily riding around with helmets perched atop their heads feeling safe.

Sorry, I’ll stop ranting now.

The riding round there is fantastico IMO, have been many times with one of the companies based a bit higher up the hill.

This ^

I almost moved out there at one point, but it came second to New Zealand in the end.

I can also confirm that the various bike companies out there all have strengths and weaknesses in different areas depending on your point of view 😀

She needs (targets) to earn £xx thousands of pounds a year. If you can find a childminder who doesn’t charge for holidays, then she’s either adding that money to your normal bill, or she’s struggling for clients (read not very good).

So you just gotta suck it up!

Mine were both about a year old, but they are spring babies and were too young in their first summer, their mum vetoed it in autumn and I was too lazy for their first winter!

Seriously though there’s no rush. At that age they’ll probably just fall alseep anyway and it very much depends on the child’s development and their mum’s opinion!

Now of course, the only time I’m allowed to take a bike out on my own is when I go to work. Any other time and the little trbs bitch, whine and howl until I take them with me, so make the most of being able to ride on your own while you can!

I wish him luck, it’s a seriously tough challenge and the only SDW x 3 challenge I’m ever likely to do is 1 way in 3 days!

But……. I’m with TJ, 3 times? I just don’t get it.

We ended up with a Ford Mondeo estate, the main criteria being a huge boot for the little trbs stuff and decent MPG from the 2l TDi, so if you don’t want to go that big a Focus would be a reasonable assumption.

nb, Some friends have a Jazz and a CR-V (work for Honda). They reckon the Jazz is better for hauling “stuff” as it has a more useable boot. Bigger on the outside doesn’t always mean better on the inside….

The problem is the thing is a old Honda Jazz, so would not come off well in any accident!

The honda jazz was only introduced in 2002, so not really old, and it’s NCAP rating is OK, so by no means unsafe. That said all of the cars you list do score higher on child safety, but lower on pedestrian safety.

I’d say the Honda Jazz is the perfect small ecomonical runabout for a mum with 1 child.

Anyway shouldn’t you be encouraging her to be using the car less and cycling more with him? Then you’ll suddenly be a bit more interested in the low pedestrian scores of all those stupid oversized softroader things.

Forgot the 😉

The Ramblers is concerned that shared-use-related engineering
works should be undertaken so as to minimise the effect that cycling
facilities will have on the natural beauty of the countryside, the
character of existing ways and facilities for walkers.

Trouble is, they are right in some respects. Whats good for the average STWer and what’s good for the majority of cyclists are different things, and once you start making things official you have to consider being inclusive and with the “wrong” (uninformed, unimaginative) people in charge, you end up with wide smooth paths that everyone can ride on, not rocky, fun singletrack.

It’s the look on people’s face when they discover I ride bikes and they say “I went to Holland once, you’d love it, all flat and proper cycle paths everywhere!” To which I reply “Sounds boring, I like riding up & down hills”

not as nice as a swimming wetsuit, but I don’t have two hundred quid spare to buy one of those.

I got an ex rental on from wiggle for 60 notes (inc one of their offers). Just need to use it now, I’m quite good at putting it on and taking it off in the living room!

My first OW tri in 2 weeks – I realy need to get some practice in….

I have a CX bike for my commute and regularly add bits of farm track, offroad family trails and the ridgeway on it and it’s great for that.
I rode the HONC on it once, but only once.

I’d go 29er if I were you.

CX bikes have their place, but if you don’t enjoy riding your road bike now, you probably won’t enjoy a CX bike as much as a 29er, and enjoyment is what it’s all about!

We tried all of the above and ended up just putting little trb No1 to bed an hour later. Both of ours had 30 – 45 mins nap during the day, any more and they got all nocturnal.

Things improved as soon as they were properly physically active and got properly tired.

So we’re going for two weeks mid July. Does anyone know if an itinerary like the following would be good?
denver-boulder-breckinridge-fruita/grand junction-moab-durango-gunnison-crested butte-salida-denver

We went for a week and did Moab & Fruita, and we still missed out on good riding at those places. I’d say your itinery is way too ambitious.

I’ve only been to Fruita (for riding) and Colorado springs (for work)

Fruita – great biking, not much else, 5 hrs from Denver??

Colorado springs – It’s got touristy stuff, Pikes peak, national park type stuff, I think there’s a visitor centre at NORAD etc. We rented bikes from one of the local shops and did a morning ride straight out of the city to one of the parks.

Purple Dawes, it was a low end model, 100 or 200LX gears, it was heavy, even the bars were steel. ’91 or 92

noisy boisterous kids

That’ll be my 2 kids then

My Advice, divide and conquer. Leave the little one with the missus and take the older one out on his own every now and again. So that he gets somes time totally devoted to him. Wether it’s an hour at the park, a day trip to the local steam train type place or a weekend at grannies.

The little one will eventually get easier – but by that time he’ll be old enough to fight with his brother and you’re into a whole new ball game.

oh the joy of parenthood………

I only have 1 road bike, so my tri bars get fitted every summer when I’m competing for 57th place in the local triathlon, and hence I commute with them for a few weeks beforehand.

Yes they are faster
No they are not comfortable
Yes they are lethal in traffic
Yes I do have a quiet laugh to myself as I ride along on tri bars with full mudguards, rack and panniers!

I got mine cheap(er) on ebay, but SJS had some reasonable priced ones a while back.

My 1968 beetle had a 44 bhp engine, which simply wasn’t up to the job.
It’s now got a 115 bhp engine and I feel much safer when driving it 😆

But I am lucky to get 20mpg with those lovely twin 40s sucking in the juice

long distance swimmers hardly kick at all

Until the last 100 meters when you kick like a mule and go really fast! But that type of kicking is not sustainable.

Sun Yang broke the world record hold, so I’m not arguing with him
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6uqZd8Tn3Y
That video is actually really good for watching technique.

What cp said^

IMO swimsmooth is a best for technique tips. Total immersion is good, but just has too much american bulls*** for me!

I had the same problem as you when I started, as well as breathing out underwater, I started taking smaller breaths. easier to take a small breath than a great big gulp and I was ready for a breath at the right point. Sounds simple, but I needed a coach to tell me!

Week 3 – Come home, go to bed, get up in time for breakfast and ride your bike all day.
DO NOT – come home, have a beer to relax, turn on a movie to chill out, get another beer from the fridge, turn on the games console, go to bed at 4am, sleep in, miss breakfast and not have time to ride before you start again!

I’m going to roll in miles behind the field to find the medals already awarded and the marshalls packing up the course.

Been there, done that

Me too! As I recall, I quite enjoyed that race as I was determined to finish the distance and get one over on the mate who persuaded me to enter the expert class and then DNF’d

My first race was Cheddar Challenge 20 yrs ago. I was nervous as hell, but started enjoying myself after the first climb when I realised I was in good company and battling hard for 97th place.

I still get nervous, but these days it’s more in anticipation of a good ride (+ swim + run these days). If I finish I’m happy, If I get in the top half I’m very happy.